[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Aurelie could have gritted her teeth in petty-minded frustration and grudging appreciation when Cillian responded to her explanation of the current saddle's faults graciously and patiently, even encouragingly. It made it so hard to fear and dislike him when he was being nice. Weren't underbosses supposed to spit fire and slit your throat if you so much as breathed wrong in their vicinity?

She managed to say none of this aloud and even smiled appreciatively when he said he could continue to help. "That's very kind of you, sir. Thank you for staying around...and for being so understanding about my errors."

Sucking in a long breath between her teeth, the red-haired smith thought deeply about how best to utilize the unexpected help. "Let me see... Here, let me give you instructions on how to reload the furnace with fresh aluminum and heat it to the right temperature."

Speaking rapidly but as clearly as she could manage, Aurelie began rattling off the series of steps for operating the foundry furnace to melt the aluminum. She guided Cillian through each dial to turn, each button to push, and each screen to monitor, cautioning him repeatedly to keep his distance once the metal started to heat up.

"There," she concluded, slightly out of breath after speaking so much in one go. "That way, you can help with setting up, while I work on improving the sand-casting mold."

With that, the red-haired smith promptly stepped back toward the sand-casting molds, the inverses of the pieces that Cillian had so painstakingly puzzled together. Only when she knelt beside them, taking them apart and bonding them together with resin fixative, did Aurelie wonder if she should've assigned the underboss this task. He was the expert with saddles, after all, not her.

Yet, she was the expert with metal-casting and using sand molds, so perhaps this was still the best way. Stealing glances at Cillian's completed saddle, Aurelie began rearranging and reshaping the mold to make a thinner, lighter, more supple saddle that would be cast all in one piece.

She gasped and then rolled her eye when, at the corner of her vision, she caught sight of the luminous white form of Calyrex hovering precisely between her and Cillian. The King Pokemon looked back and forth between them, before nodding its head deeply. Aurelie let out an exasperated sigh.

"Please tell me that means you approve of this," she grumbled at Calyrex, her voice rising just enough to be audible above the drone of the furnace and the clatter of the molds.

As before, as she expected now, it gave no answer.

"I wish I understood you," she declared with only mild rancor. Glancing up at Cillian, she asked curiously, "Do you know if there was anyone who did know a lot about Calyrex? In Galar, the real Galar, I mean? Anyone who did understand it?"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","main"]

Lucky for Aurelie, she has not yet breathed wrong.[break][break]

He chuckles at her repeated cautions against standing too close to the forge. He's all too conscious of the heat. He was born in the cold mountains of Galar, not meant for this sort of sweltering environment. Yet he doesn't complain, and he doesn't correct, instead stepping back each time she mentions it. This was not his domain, but it was hers.[break][break]

Standing back from the forge once he'd performed the steps to the dance she'd taught him, Cillian glances over at Aurelie's gasp. At first worried the smith had burned herself or dropped something, he relaxes upon seeing her unharmed.[break][break]

Instead, the regal rabbit returns to grace them with its presence, ever-silent and unhelpful. He presses his lips together to resist a laugh.[break][break]

"I'm afraid all I know comes from storybooks, and they're not the most reliable source." It might seem strange to think of the austere underboss enjoying storybooks... but he'd been a child, once. "I'm sure there's someone out there, though. There's an expert in everything, if you look hard enough." Whether it was Elisabeth Fiorelli's knowledge of toxins or freya morningstar's DRAGONOLOGY. "But, then, our 'experts' brought us those abominations they called fossils."[break][break]

Trust the paleontologist to disparage the Galarian 'fossils'.

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[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Aurelie was glumly, amusedly unsurprised when the underboss echoed what she was beginning to think was the commonly accepted knowledge about Calyrex: namely, that there wasn't much knowledge out there. "Well, it was worth a try! Sadly, you're not the first to tell me that most of what we know about Calyrex comes from legends and stories.

"It really does seem like Calyrex is one of the more mysterious Legendaries out there, which is saying something when it's about Legendaries." Glancing at the hovering figure of Calyrex behind them out of the corner of her eye, she sighed and shrugged matter-of-factly.

"But I guess this is Rocket's opportunity to learn something more substantive and useful about Calyrex, if it's going to be allied with us," the red-haired smith concluded, turning her attention back to reassembling the saddle molds.

Still, though, I wish I knew more, she thought wistfully. I wish I had some way of knowing what it was thinking. She was used to being able to ask questions and receive answers from the customers that came to the Iron Lady Forge, including Cillian himself. This lack of responsiveness unsettled her.

Feeling they'd already discussed the enigmatic Calyrex enough, though, Aurelie cleared her throat and changed the subject. "What do you mean about the 'fossil abominations'? Who brought them to wh..."

Suddenly, her voice trailed off as Calyrex unexpectedly approached her side. Her mouth dropping open in surprise, she watched in silence as the kingly hare visibly leaned forward to inspect the sand molds. Then, it moved toward Cillian and tilted its head back to observe the melting aluminum.

From her vantage point, Aurelie gaped as its mouth subtly, gradually curled upward in a smile. It nodded deeply once, the large green bud on its head bobbing up and down. This was already more reaction than she'd ever gotten from it before.

Then, to her utter shock, it raised one hand—paw? Appendage?—into the air as if holding an invisible cup out, first to Cillian and then to Aurelie. "Is it...toasting us now?" she breathed. "Does that mean it...likes what you and I are making?"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","main"]

"Stories shouldn't be discounted. Myth and legend usually stems from somewhere." It's with relief that he takes a few steps back from the heat of the forge; Hoenn's humid air has never felt so refreshing. "I've never known Lugia to cause 40-day storms, but she certainly can whip up a hell of a hurricane."
[break][break]

It had never rained so much in Sootopolis as before Lugia had made its Bay her home. But much as she caused a disruption in weather patterns, so too did she shield Rocket's capital from tropical storms.
[break][break]

"Doesn't help that he won't talk much."
[break][break]

He turns to Calyrex with a dry smile, as if to assure the rabbit king that there was no heat behind those words.
[break][break]

He chuckles at the mimed toast, reciprocating in kind. When Cillian smiles, the lines around his eyes deepen. It makes him look almost kind.
[break][break]

But certain predators knew well how to conceal their fangs.
[break][break]

"Well, it certainly doesn't seem to dislike it, so that's good." A shrug. "As to the fossils, have you ever seen an Arctovish? Arctozolt? Dracovish or Dracozolt? Those things aren't meant to live." He laughs. "My Arctovish has to be kept in a special tank so that it doesn't starve, because it can't see its prey to hunt. They're a joke, even in Galar. At least among the scientists who matter."[break][break]

He bites his tongue to stop from going on a rant; she didn't need to hear about the academic discourse. Instead, the underboss nods toward the molds. "How're you feeling about these?"

[break][break]